MOBILE, Alabama (Jan. 26, 2026) — A little boy battling cancer has been visiting the pediatric infusion suite known as The Hope almost every week for the last nine months at Children’s & Women’s Hospital. After his chemotherapy treatment on Monday, though, he did something a little out of the ordinary. The preschooler with a big smile tossed a blue football with college players in town for the 2026 Panini Senior Bowl.

“You never really know what someone else is going through,” said Justin Joly, a tight end who played for the North Carolina State Wolfpack and was visiting the hospital. “Having the opportunity to put smiles on people’s faces really brought me joy today.”

Joly was among 21 football players who visited the region’s only hospital for children and women in Mobile, meeting with patients and their families, along with staff members, as part of the Senior Bowl.

The visits are organized through the hospital’s Mapp Child and Family Life Program, which works to normalize a child’s hospital stay. Research shows that such techniques can lead to better health outcomes for patients.

Rayshaun Benny, a defensive tackle with the University of Michigan, said his time tossing a ball with the little boy and visiting with other children and their parents in the infusion center meant the world to him: “My passion is giving back to kids,” he said, as he walked into the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s & Women’s Hospital. “Just being able to make an impact feels really good.”

Players and Senior Bowl staff fanned out through the hospital, visiting patients in their rooms as well as ClassAct, the hospital’s school program; the Treehouse, a therapeutic playroom for pediatric patients stocked with toys and games on the third floor; and the neonatal intensive care unit, a place where extremely premature and sick infants have the opportunity to thrive.
“Some days can be challenging for patients and staff, and so something special like this, a chance to get to see a player that they’ve been watching on TV for a while, that they’ll continue watching on TV, just now on Sundays, that makes a difference,” said Beth Abston, a recreational therapist who works within the Mapp program. “It is great for the staff, too. It brightens their day as well.”

The Mapp Child and Family Life Program supports families with hospitalized children by using child life specialists, recreational therapists and full-time certified teachers who specialize in education, coping, and other support activities to normalize the hospital environment. The goal for these specialists is to minimize stress and help children and families better manage their healthcare experience.

The Senior Bowl, held annually in Mobile for more than 76 years, features top college football prospects and includes several community activities throughout the week leading up to the game on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the campus of the University of South Alabama.

About USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital
USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital – part of the University of South Alabama, the Flagship of the Gulf Coast – is the only stand-alone inpatient facility in Alabama dedicated to providing the most advanced and comprehensive healthcare to the region’s children and women. Services range from the region’s only pediatric emergency center open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, staffed with specially trained emergency medicine physicians and other providers to the region’s only level III neonatal intensive care unit, small baby unit and pediatric intensive care unit, where the area’s sickest children receive the most advanced care. The highly trained staff delivers more babies annually than any other hospital in the Mobile area and includes the region’s only high-risk obstetrics program.